Techniques for Developing
Usable VREs
Judith Wusteman
UCD School of
Information and Library Studies
Overview
• SFI Ojax++ VRE
• Maximising the Usability of Web 2.0 VREs
– Agile software development methods
– Usability Testing
A collaboration between the UCD Schools of
Library & Information Studies
And
Computer Science & Informatics
Applying concepts from
the Social Web and recommender technology
to the VRE
September ‘07 – November ‘10
http://www.ucd.ie/ojax
OAuth
OJAX: A prototype user interface
to a federated search service
Rich Internet Applications
• Atom
• Ajax
(Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)
• ARIA
(Accessible Rich Internet Applications)
User Centred Design
Agile s/w development
Iterative
OJAX
User Centered
OSS development
Openess
User Control
Web 2.0
Manifesto for Agile Software Development
We are uncovering better ways of developing
• Manifesto for Agile Software Development
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.
Agile software development
• Iterations of 2-4 weeks
• Only as much documentation as necessary
• Early coding
• Working version - stable, testable software
• Close collaboration and rapid feedback
between developers, users and customers
User Centred Design
Agile s/w dev
OJAX
Iterative
Community
User Centred
OSS dev
Openness
User Control
Web 2.0
Usability Testing / User Testing
• Representative users performing representative
tasks in the presence of a tester
• From Usability Labs…
• ….to usability testing
on 10 cents a day
Usability testing in OJAX
• Testing similar systems
by a proxy user
• Pre- and post-evaluation
questionnaires
• Iterative proxy testing
•
• Representative users
testing
• “Key task” testing
“Get it” testing
[Krug]
Results of Usability testing
• “Kayak” issues
(Krug)
• Learning a new metaphor
• Unintuitive features
User Centred Design
Agile s/w dev
Iterative
VRE
User Centred
OSS dev
Openness
User Control
Web 2.0